On the 25th anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, two mothers and survivors of that tragic day remain haunted by the horrifying memories that comes flooding back as they send their children off to school.
Missy Mendo was a 14-year-old freshman and Amy Over was an 18-year-old senior when two teenagers opened fire inside the Littleton, Colo., school on April 20, 1999, killing 12 students and a teacher, and wounding 24 others.
At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Mendo, now 39, told People.com that memories of the carnage came streaming back when she enrolled her daughter for pre-kindergarten in May 2022 on the same day news was breaking of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers.
"I remembered seeing how long it took for somebody to get inside our school," Mendo told People. "Watching that go down while I was filling out paperwork with my kid was just the stuff that nightmares are made out of."
Mendo, who was physically unharmed in the Columbine shooting, said she remembers the gunmen firing at her and other students as they fled to a nearby park.
She said she takes precautions not to project her anxiety on her 5-year-old daughter, and will talk to her about the events of that day when the "time is appropriate and the situation is appropriate."
Over, now a 43-year-old mother of four, said she has had those conversations with her two oldest children.
When her son and daughter, both 18, went to their senior prom on April 19, the eve of the shooting's anniversary, Over said she felt mixed emotions as she recalled her own prom just days before the tragedy.
She called it a "full circle moment."
"I just remember it being just a beautiful, happy time, just a fun night with my friends," Over told People about going to her prom. "And I guess the saddest part of it is that I'm just not that same girl that I was 25 years ago."
